ALLAN GARDENS

A number of years ago, I was stopped on the street by a young woman with a clipboard, with the task of gathering a list of names of people to play as extras in a movie that was to be filmed in Toronto. After the usual contact details, she asked, although I didn’t understand why, where I’d gone to High School, to which I replied David & Mary Thompson. She already knew I lived in Scarborough, and wondered out loud, why it was that so many of the Schools in Scarborough, were named after people. I remarked that it wasn’t that unusual and being curious, asked where she’d gone to school, to which she replied Jarvis Collegiate… like the street. Well ya! but the street was named after Samuel Jarvis, the Chief Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Upper Canada (1837-1845), and a member of the Family Compact.

All this to say that these photographs were produced in Allan Gardens, located on Jarvis Street, which is a wonderful throwback to the Victorian period in Toronto’s history. The Buildings still conjure up the sensation of the period, but the grounds could use a little tender-loving-care.